Vallarta Tribune - Issue 1175 October 10 - 16, 2019

BIKING AROUND VALLARTA

SUSTAINABLY YOURS

Biking for Health of People & Planet

Designing the Culture of Tomorrow

Page 08

Page 16

THOUGHTS FROM THE TILE PARK

Climate Control Page 19

October 10-16, 2019 Year 22 Free Issue 1175

FR EE

GU ID E

ALL-INCLUSIVE NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE FOR PUERTO VALLARTA AND RIVIERA NAYARIT

Influencing the Shifting Sands of Time

MAP OF BANDERAS BAY

PAGE 12-13

VALLARTA SHOPPING PAGES 14-15

ENTERTAINMENT PAGES19-22

CROSSWORD PAGE 21

WWW.VALLARTATRIBUNE.COM | FB/VTATRIBUNE | TWITTER @VALLARTATRIBUNE | INSTAGRAM @VALLARTATRIBUNE

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Welcome

Welcome to Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit

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t the Vallarta Tribune we want you to have the best experience possible while you explore Puerto Vallarta, the Bay of Banderas and Riviera Nayarit. Here are some helpful tips for traveling.

TIME ZONE: The entire state of Jalisco and the southern part Nayarit are on Central time – if you’re heading further north than Lo de Marcos, Nayarit, remember the time change so you don’t miss your flight.

BUSES: A system of urban buses can bring you from El Tuito in the south to San Pancho in the north and all the spots in between.

Fares vary according to distances travelled, but the base fare is 10 pesos. If you’re going further than San Pancho, head to the main bus terminal to catch a ‘Pacifico’ bus.

TAXIS: There are set fares within defined zones of town. Do not enter a taxi without agreeing on the price with the driver. Make a note of the taxi number in case you leave something behind. Drivers typically do not carry change.

UBER: New in 2017 to Puerto Vallarta, Uber is still experiencing some growing pains particularly in the state of Nayarit. Uber is cheaper than a taxi usually.

GETTING AROUND: In many places such as Centro Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta there are paths for bikes and pedestrians. Please be respectful of these designations.

MONEY EXCHANGE: The most hassle-free way to exchange money is to use your debit card in the ATM to withdraw pesos.

Exchange houses offer higher rates and banks are remiss to change dollars to pesos if you don’t hold an account with them. Best to use ATM’s that are affiliated with a reputable bank located in well lit secure areas.

TIPPING: In general you should tip 10-20% in restaurants and bars. Taxi or Uber drivers – 10-20 pesos. The person who bags your groceries or helps load your car – 10-20 pesos. Don’t forget to tip

CALLING IN MEXICO

your maid, bell boy, masseuse, the band, the entertainment on your tour. And by all means, tip more if you want, wages are extremely low in Mexico.

DRINKING WATER: While Puerto Vallarta’s water has been awarded a certification of purity for the past two decades, the quality of the water tested at the source varies greatly from what comes out of the tap at the other end.

Don’t wreck your holiday – buy bottle water.

EXPORTING PETS: Falling in love with the street dog outside your hotel is easy to do and it’s also easy to bring them home with you.

The process is inexpensive and only takes a day or two. You only need a certificate of health from a local vet and check with your airline for additional requirements.

COMMON SENSE: Just as you wouldn’t walk around your hometown drunk and belligerent, it is not acceptable to do that here.

While Mexico is a tolerant culture, politeness is paramount. Don’t pee in the streets. Don’t flash your money or expensive gadgets. Pay attention to your surroundings.

Know where you are going. Pay your bills (and don’t forget to tip).

And have fun!

DRINKING AND DRIVING: First off – just don’t. The consequences are not worth it. Taxis or Ubers are cheap and plentiful. Fines are very expensive. You can go to jail and your vehicle impounded.

There are many checkstops on the weekends, and you will be asked to take a breathalizer test if they suspect you have been drinking.

LEGAL SYSTEM: Not knowing the law is not a valid excuse in Mexico, or anywhere. If you find yourself caught in a legal situation, be aware that often guilt is presumed until your innocence can be proven. This is a very difficult lesson to learn if you are visiting from the United States or Canada. Immediately contact your consulate for assistance.

Director Noemi Zamora noemi.zamora@cps.media Editor Neil Gerlowski neilg@vallartatribune.com Sales Team editor@vallartatribune.com Designer Cynthia Estela Andrade Gutiérrez cysandra@gmail.com

October 10-16, 2019 (UPDATED AUGUST 2019)

LOCAL CALLS WITHIN MEXICO All calls within Mexico can now be dialed using the 10-digit telephone number (usually a two- or three-digit area code plus an eight- or seven-digit number) from a landline or cell phone, eliminating the need for prefixes, such as 01, 044 or 045. In Mexico, most cities use a three-digit area code, notable exceptions being CDMX, Guadalajara and Monterrey.

LONG DISTANCE CALLS WITHIN MEXICO Same procedure as above applies.

LONG DISTANCE CALLS TO MEXICO FROM ABROAD If you are making a long-distance call to Mexico from abroad, simply add the country code (52) to the 10-digit number as described above.

CALLING TOLL-FREE NUMBERS (The following procedure predates the August 2019 update. We are waiting for specific information regarding toll-free calls within Mexico and to numbers elsewhere.)

Some toll-free numbers work from Mexico to the US and Canada, but many do not. Those that do work are often not toll-free. You need to dial a different prefix. To call the following toll free prefixes, dial as follows: 800 numbers Dial 001-880-then the number 866 numbers Dial 001-883-then the number 877 numbers Dial 001-882-then the number 888 numbers Dial 001-881-then the number

INTERNATIONAL LONG-DISTANCE CALLS FROM MEXICO US & Canada: Dial 001 + Area Code + Number Elsewhere: Dial 00 + Country Code + Area Code + Number

FIRE DEPARTMENT: 322.223.9476 AMBULANCE: 322.222.1533 IMMIGRATION: 322.224.7719 CONSUMER PROTECTION: 01.800.468.8722

Emergencies: 911 Red Cross: 065

Ahoy Cruisers!

In port this month

TOURISM OFFICES Jalisco: 322.221.2676 Nayarit: 322.297.1006 CONSULATES American Consulate 24 hrs 01-332-268-2100 Canadian Consulate 322.293.0098 322.293.0099 24 hrs: 1.800.706.2900

In the month October and November Puerto Vallarta & Riviera Nayarit welcomes 94,932 passengers!

Bienvenido!

NAME CARNIVAL CRYSTAL CRUISES LINE HOLLAND AMERICA PRINCESS CRUISES PRINCESS CRUISES WINDSTAR CRUISES NORWEGIAN CRUISES CARNIVAL PRINCESS CRUISES NORWEGIAN CRUISES CELEBRETY DISNEY CRUISES LINE ROYAL CARIBBEAN HOLLAND AMERICA HOLLAND AMERICA PRINCESS CRUISES DISNEY CRUISES LINE

PASS DATE 3,200 02.10.2019 940 03.10.2019 2,106 06.10.2019 2,600 07.10.2019 3,600 10.10.2019 212 11.10.2019 3,883 14.10.2018 2,680 15.10.2019 2,400 21.10.2019 2,240 22.10.2019 2,850 23.10.2019 2,500 24.10.2019 2,435 26.10.2019 1,820 27.10.2019 2,104 29.10.2019 3,600 30.10.2019 2,500 31.10.2019

ROYAL CARIBBEAN

2,435

02.11.2019

Vallarta Tribune is an activity and entertainment guide and publishes information as it is provided by the advertiser or event host. We do not assume responsibility in errors or omissions other than to correct them as they are made known to us regarding event schedules, locations and/or prices. In addition, we do not assume any responsibility for erroneous inclusion or exclusion of information except to take reasonable care to ensure accuracy, that permission

CARNIVAL CELEBRETY PRINCESS CRUISES DISNEY CRUISES LINE PRINCESS CRUISES CELEBRETY CARNIVAL HOLLAND AMERICA CARNIVAL NORWEGIAN CRUISES PRINCESS CRUISES NORWEGIAN CRUISES CELEBRETY CARNIVAL NORWEGIAN CRUISES PRINCESS CRUISES NORWEGIAN CRUISES ROYAL CARIBBEAN

2,680 05.11.2019 2,046 06.11.2019 3,600 06.11.2019 2,500 11.11.2019 3,080 11.11.2019 2,046 12.11.2019 2,680 13.11.2019 2,104 19.11.2019 2,680 20.11.2019 2,240 20.11.2019 3,600 20.11.2019 3,883 21.11.2019 2,850 23.11.2019 2,680 26.11.2019 2,240 27.11.2019 3,600 27.11.2019 3,883 28.11.2019 2,435 28.11.2019

has been obtained to use it, and to remove it as soon as is practical upon receiving your notification of error. We recommend you always confirm prior to attending or visiting an event or establishment.

Weekly publication edited, printed and distributed by Compañía Periodística Sudcaliforniana S.A. de C.V. Oficinas: 21 de Marzo 1174, Col. Lomas de Coapinole, CP48290, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.

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Editorial

October 10-16, 2019

Editor’s Note Neil Gerlowski

editor@vallartatribune.com

Influencing the Shifting Sands of Time

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rticles in this week’s edition of the Vallarta Tribune

by Emily Majewski and Emily Murray ’s really got me thinking about how much power we as humans collectively have to influence the future. As with anytime I find myself deep in thought, a little reflection in nature provided context for my pondering.

Staring out at the miles of beaches lining our beloved Banderas Bay, one can easily imagine that while individual grains of sand come and go with the waves and the wind, our shorelines themselves have changed little through the course of time. It only takes a major weather event like what we experienced recently with Hurricane Lorena and Tropical Storm Narda (thankfully

downgraded before arriving in Vallarta) to remind us of what a fallacy such thoughts are.

Beaches are dynamic and transitory land forms that can be washed away as quickly as they are formed. After the recent storms passed, I was amazed at how different the mouth of the Río Cuale looks now. Loads of sand, probably enough to overflow enormous fleets of earthmoving equipment for weeks on end, were dumped far out past the normal mouth of the

river forming a wide arch of a sand bar that looks more like an island at low tide.

The infrastructure we humans have built up around us doesn’t always respect the natural forces at work and factor in the dynamic tendencies of our environment. We can see this at play locally with our beaches after a major storm event, but it’s hard for most of us to extrapolate out our collective impacts across the planet. It’s even harder for us to imagine

changing our current trajectory as a civilization to a course of sustainability while our planet is still functioning as a relatively healthy interconnection of complimentary ecosystems.

Perhaps turning our focus back to the local area can again provide us with a frame of reference we can conceptualize more easily. What do we need to do as a local community to protect the bay, estuaries, rivers, forests, and mountains we ultimately rely upon for our health

and economy? As long as we can accomplish impactful actions of conservation and environmental stewardship here in our area and inspire visitors to do so wherever they call home, we still have hope as a planet. As you relax in, work in, or visit Puerto Vallarta this week, think of some ways you can live more harmoniously with planet earth, our collective home.

With great hope for our future, Neil Gerlowski Editor

Read the first edition of the Best of Banderas Bay and Riviera Nayarit guide online www.vallartatribune.com

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pages of information designed to make your stay in the area the best! From the best beaches to the best activities and more, you can download and view online at www.vallartatribune.com and watch for copies at your favourite VallartaTribune distribution points.

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News / Local Voices Paradise and Parenting

Tax News and Advice

Orlando Gotay, Tax Attorney

Leza Warkentin

tax@orlandogotay.com

www.mommyinmexico.wordpress.com

Orlando Gotay is a California licensed tax attorney (with a Master of Laws in Taxation) admitted to practice before the IRS, the U.S. Tax Court, and other taxing agencies.

Leza is a nursery teacher and preschool coordinator at the American School of Puerto Vallarta.

We aren’t Joe — Passport Cancellations can be Catastrophic

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n 2015, Congress mandated a process through which taxpayers owing “seriously delinquent tax debt” could have their US passports either denied renewal or outright canceled.

This a tool previously used by Congress to rein in undesirable conduct. Child support arrears and certain felons trigger passport restrictions. Now, those who are “seriously tax delinquent” come in the mix.

The IRS puts together a list of people, transmits it to the State Department, who takes action.

Over 360,000 taxpayers risk having passport restrictions. What about cancellation?

When this issue came up, I told ‘at risk’ readers (those with around $50,000 in federal tax debt and over) to renew passports immediately before procedures were set up, giving them more breathing room. But the law provides for either nonrenewal or cancellation. The IRS recognizes cancellation is more drastic and has waited to see how nonrenewal, the softer remedy, works.

It seems they are ready to roll out cancellations soon. Warnings have come out.

For Joe the Plumber, at home in Tulsa, a passport cancellation may not matter much. Joe’s daily activities don’t require a passport, and he does not travel overseas often. But — we aren’t Joe. A canceled passport does not melt away like the Wicked Witch of the West, nor does the IRS “police” come, sirens blaring, to yank it away from you. But when you try to use it, you may unpleasantly learn it’s no longer good. Imagine coming to the US for a visit and the border agent saying, “welcome back, but we’re keeping your passport,” And you still need to somehow return to Mexico!

If detected by Mexican authorities, a revoked passport can cut short your stay, maybe earning a trip to the border or preventing renewal of a resident permit. ¡No bueno!

To me, the worse thing would be if a passport were revoked without me knowing. The IRS sends several notices to the last address you used with them. Have you updated your address with the IRS? Of course, the best way to prevent a passport disaster is to keep square accounts with the taxman; second best is to proactively deal with tax debt itself…and a valid address is often an overlooked critical step in learning what’s coming. Update your IRS address via Form 8822, or through a tax return filing, or even by letter to the IRS. Just tell them.

That way you won’t be surprised.

How to Stop Bullying

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ullying is a topic that comes up frequently in both parent groups and in educator groups. And it should because it can really impact the social-emotional wellbeing of children who have been on the receiving end.

Data supports the effects of bullying are felt by the victims, the bystanders, and even the bullies themselves. We definitely need to be concerned about bullying and avoid taking the stance of: “Kids need to learn to handle tough situations! How will they deal with people if they don’t learn when they are young!”

Or “Oh, kids will be kids!

Everybody’s mean sometimes!”

Or “Well, I was bullied, and I turned out ok!”

What I say to that is: a) Kids need to learn that victimizing people is wrong. They need to know that we are going to help them when they ask for it. They must learn when they are young that bystanders have power they can use for doing the right thing. b) Kids don’t have to be mean sometimes. Or anytime. c) You actually didn’t turn out entirely ok. I can be almost

certain.

Our school has taken a strong stand on bullying and requires all staff to be educated on identifying and dealing with bullying behaviors. We have a specific protocol to follow when bullying has been discovered.

And, most importantly, we work hard to create an environment where bullying is much less likely to take place.

One way to do that is by creating a community where kids don’t need to sit alone at lunch.

We all know these kids. These are new kids who don’t know anyone, or kids who don’t quite fit in the usual mold, or kids who have stuff happening at home that they don’t want anyone to know about.

When a child sits alone and is socially isolated outside of school, they are much more likely to be singled out as a bully’s victim. If they have no friends, they have no one to stick up for them. And most bullies don’t care to deal with groups of kids, or really anyone with a lot of social currency.

Your child may tell you about a lonely kid: “Oh so-and-so always eats alone. He doesn’t like anyone. He says weird things.

He thinks he’s better than us. He never talks.” Yep, those are the ones. They often seem different

October 10-16, 2019 and, even more often, indifferent.

This is likely because they don’t want anyone to know that the isolation actually gets to them. It’s a coping behavior, one that most people would employ in a similar situation.

You should definitely help your child understand more about bullying. You should teach them what they should do when they are being bullied. You should help boost their self-esteem. You should absolutely report it to the school.

But if you really, truly care about bullying in your school and/ or community, you will also teach your child to eat with the lonely kid. You’ll tell them to choose an isolated classmate for their project partner.

You’ll teach them that they can stand beside that kid and tell someone else to stop the bullying behavior. You’ll tell them about the power of the bystander, and show them how to use it.

The other day my husband was approached at the school gates by a new parent to our school. His son was new to our son’s class.

He told my husband that he really appreciated how our son had been sitting with his boy every day at lunch so he wouldn’t have to sit alone as the new kid.

Now, my boy is a teenager and thus tells us nothing, so we didn’t realize he had taken on that responsibility. But apparently, he had been not only eating with him but spending all the breaks with him showing him the ropes as well as texting him after school to coach him through unfamiliar assignments. His response when we asked him was to shrug and say, “Well, that’s what I’d want if I were new.”

Good grades are wonderful.

Getting into a good college is fabulous. But having a child who cares enough to sit with the new kid? Yeah. That’s some proud mom material.

On The Water

Capt. Gregory Pilkington greg@fishtfc.com

With Capt. Gregory Pilkington of www.FishTFC.com. FishTFC operates private bay tours, marine and whale encounters, and world-class sport fishing charters. For more information contact greg@FishTFC.com or call +1 (435) 901-4564.

There’s Gold in them there Waters!

D

orado in Spanish means Golden, and that is exactly what your day will be if you head out on a Dorado fishing trip this time of year.

Also called Mahi-Mahi or Dolphinfish, Dorado is the world’s most popular offshore gamefish for many reasons. First, they fight great on light to medium tackle which is ideal for novice and advanced anglers alike. Second, they have voracious appetites which means you usually don’t have to wait long for a strike - perfect for children or those with short attention spans.

And, last but certainly not least, they taste delicious. What more could you ask for?

This Week’s Best Bet As expected, the runoff from the recent storms has collected about 8 miles off of Punta Mita.

If you head out until you find the

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Local Voices

October 10-16, 2019

debris and fish the area for a few hours, you are as close to being guaranteed of catching fish as you will ever be.

And for the most part, these aren’t small school-size fish but rather acrobatic 10-50 pound show-offs. I highly recommend you take turns reeling them in and having someone at all times taking video or photos, because this is something you will definitely want to re-live.

And, don’t be surprised if a Sailfish, Marlin or Wahoo decides to crash the Dorado party, as it happens quite frequently.

Conservation Corner Take a kid fishing and teach them about conservation!

Now, is the perfect time to introduce youth to fishing and teach them about conservation.

The seas are calm and the fishing is fast-paced.

Keep some Dorado and throw back the smaller ones to keep fish stocks healthy. Use circle hooks which don’t harm fish the way that

traditional j-hooks do. Point out and remove some of the plastic mixed amongst the debris.

Our children are going to be key to saving our marine environments.

Let’s show them why it is worth fighting to preserve.

Topless Tip Dorado is one of my favorite fish to eat and so easy to cook.

Here is my favorite (and easiest) way to prepare it: Heat at a very high temperature a mix of butter and olive oil in a skillet. Sprinkle the Dorado fillets with Cajun Seasoning and once the skillet is hot, sear (blacken) the fillets.

After a couple minutes flip the fillets and quickly blacken the other side. As an added bonus, add a bit of orange liqueur and a squeeze of lemon and serve.

Do not overcook. ¡Que rico!

Curator’s Clippings Horticultural Tips Robert Price

www.vbgardens.org Robert Price, Founder and Curator of the Vallarta Botanical Garden

Gardening as Therapy

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ardening is not only fun—it’s therapeutic. That’s probably not news to many of you who have already developed green thumbs from years of care and cultivating, but in the last few years this has grown into a movement.

Many wellness centers, retirement facilities, and rehabilitation institutions are expanding their gardening programs in response.

As urban life separates many of us in the modern world from daily contact with the joys of nature, gardening immerses us in it completely. The term “bathing in nature” has even entered the lexicon of therapists and those developing progressive institutional programs.

The results of such actions have been measured by many tests that show increased levels of serotonin and dopamine (our happy hormones) and decreases in cortisol (a hormone associated with negative levels of stress).

It may not only be the activities of gardening (weeding, sowing, watering, trimming…) that provide these effects. Studies conducted on microbes in the soil, such as Mycobacterium vaccae, appear to stimulate serotonin production, mirroring the effects of drugs such as Prozac. That may not be good news for the pharmaceutical companies, but it sure is excellent

news for anyone who has access to a plot of land to dig in!

In some ways, gardening is like being a pet owner, in that it provides opportunities to nurture and focus attention on lives other than our own. In a modern world of stress and worry, becoming self-absorbed is a serious trend that can lead to an unhealthy downward spiral.

Dedicating time and attention to plants pulls us away from self in a positive way and engages us mentally and physically with the care of our living charges.

Gardening can be practiced as a conscious form of meditation, placing us in a Zen-like state of intense focus and healthy repetition.

Placing our energy so thoroughly and applying our thoughts so wholly to the job at hand mean we can release, at least temporarily, the concerns that distract and stress us.

By placing us outside and forcing us to contemplate the natural world—the climbing tendrils of a vine, the infinite and perfect beauty of a flower—we slow down time and gain even greater insights to our living planet. When we are not only surrounded by beauty, but are engaged in it, our appreciation is not only that of a spectator, but of an active participant. By learning more about natural cycles and how to encourage the innate abilities of plants to thrive and grow, we are rewarded throughout the seasons by living signs of our success.

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Local Voices Biking Around Vallarta

Ricardo Murrieta

ricardomurrieta@gmail.com

Ricardo Murrieta is the owner of Aequilibrium Bikes + in Puerto Vallarta’s Versalles neighborhood on Calle Vienna near its intersection with Francisco Villa. He’s also on the board of Vallarta En Bici, a local non-profit dedicated to promoting biking in and around Puerto Vallarta.

Biking for Health of People & Planet

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t probably won’t come as a great surprise that cycling is the most efficient means of self-powered transportation. On average, the same energy and time that it takes a person to walk a given distance over an area of flat ground would take her over three times farther if she used that same energy to cycle instead. In other words, cycling is about three times as efficient as walking!

Many factors effect cycling efficiency, chief among them being terrain (climbing steep hills by bicycle requires greater energy expenditures) and air drag (the faster you cycle the more the air around you slows you down).

There’s also several tradeoffs to consider in terms of what kind of bicycle you choose to ride and its performance in various situations.

Some of the latest superlight road bicycles weigh in at less than 4.5 kg (10 lbs.), but their aggressive angles, paper-thin tires, lack of shocks, and overall fragility make them inappropriate for many applications… such as the calles empedradas (cobblestone streets) of Puerto Vallarta.

Even Vallarta’s paved streets have enough potholes and other imperfections that a general purpose mountain bike is a much more advisable choice. On the topic of road imperfections, our city’s storm drains are among the most dangerous non-vehicular hazards you can encounter. Keep vigilant for them as you ride and develop a strict habit of steering a course around them instead of crossing them—no matter how thick your tires are.

Cycling isn’t just a very efficient use of energy, it’s a great workout

for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

In terms of the benefits provided by cycling as an exercise, it’s roughly equivalent to jogging, but without the harsh impacts on weight bearing joints that runners often suffer.

Not only is cycling good for your health, promoting it as a petroleum-free mode of transportation can be part of the answer to developing a more healthy planet.

In addition to bicycles being petro-free, they require just a tiny investment of resources to produce and a well-maintained bicycle can easily last for decades with only minor repairs and replacement of parts.

Consider this: an average bicycle which weighs around 12 kg (about 25 lbs.) and can last a lifetime.

Compare that to the average car that weighs about 1300 kg (about 2,900 lbs.) and is replaced about 10 times over the lifetime of an average North American driver for a total amount of static resources weighing about 13,000 kg (29,000

lbs). That’s over a thousand times more resources than a bicycle without factoring in gasoline, oil, replacement parts et cetera.

My favorite reason to bicycle though is because it’s fun. Bicycle can provide a lifetime of enjoyment and is a sport you can share with your entire family.

Some of the only downsides to bicycling versus transportation by motor vehicle are safety and the security of your bicycle when you park it in public areas.

These last two considerations can be easily addressed by designated bicycle friendly infrastructure which most progressive countries are planning for and installing for the health of their residents, the health of their planet, and for promoting recreation which strengthens tourism-based economies.

This all makes the Puerto Vallarta region a prime candidate for urban and rural planning that treats bicycling as a priority, not an afterthought.

Hopefully, we will start moving in that direction as a community sometime soon. In the meantime, I’ll continue writing about some of my favorite bicycle routes in and around Puerto Vallarta.

Are you an avid biker looking for an adventure this fall?

Then mark your calendars for the weekend of November 16 and 17 for the annual Puerto Vallarta to San Sebastián Challenge—a 70 kilometer route climbing from our coast up to a Pueblo Mágico of nearly 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) in elevation. Register today: www. aequilibriumbikes.com.mx.

Remember: keep Puerto Vallarta safe and friendly by always sharing the road with care and looking out for bicycles.

October 10-16, 2019

A Table in the Corner Bronwen White

walesbw@gmail.com

Originally from London, Bronwen White has moved to Puerto Vallarta from the US, where she lived in many of its great cities. She is presently embarking on her journey of discovering the local culinary scene delights.

La Dolce Vita

L

a Dolce Vita – a phrase that became synonymous with a certain fabulous Italian lifestyle after Fellini’s iconic 1960 movie of the same name (who can think of the Trevi fountain without a mental image of Anita Ekberg!). Before I moved here and came for visits, I would hie to the original La Dolce Vita on our then underdeveloped Malecon. Now I go to their new restaurant on Basilio Badillo because I have heard complaints about staff on their phones at the original one. Why servers who depend heavily on tips to survive would choose to stare into their phones and ignore their customers is beyond me – I am personally in favor of total cell phone banishment in restaurants, an idea whose time is coming thank goodness! Well, now that particular pet peeve is out of the way . . .

The place looks great and feels great in the hot summer days, it’s a giant air-conditioned dome. The bar is hip with its fresh flowers and marble top. Hang on though - I feel another pet peeve coming on. The music.

As in so many places, it is too loud - and who first dictated that diners all enjoy tired old 70’s rock’n’roll? Fairly recently I went to what was touted as being the best restaurant in Panama City, Panama, for what they called a “total Panamanian experience” - course after course served with a blow-by-blow narration of that fascinating country, but the whole evening was spoiled by Michael Jackson wailing on about his Billy Jean. Who knew Michael Jackson was Panamanian?

But my point is - marry the restaurant cuisine and ambiance to the music. It’s corny but effective!

But do I ever digress, La Dolce Vita has the most extensive array of pizzas; there are 25 on the menu, and they are all great. You’ve got your usual suspects, Margherita, pepperoni, quattro formaggi,frutti di

mare and climbing up the pizzeria ladder to an Esotica with ham and pineapple, the Luna with gorgonzola (delicioso!), the tonno e cipolla with tuna, all the way up to the Fantasia where you can choose your three main ingredients. So, pizza lovers, they’ve got you covered! There is an excellent array of pasta, and I’m a great smoked salmon fancier so often order the fettucine al salmone; although last time it was not up to snuff, the salmon was limp and tasteless. A lovely one from the Paste column is the linguine zucchini e gamberi with shrimp sautéed in white wine. They kick it up a notch in the Paste Fresche department; I really love the cannelloni filled with spinach and ricotta, which feature in their ravioli too. I don’t know where they get their spinach, but all I can say is that if Popeye were in town, he’d be eating here every day. Perennial favorites chicken Parmigiana and Cacciatore are both excellent, and the cotelleta alla Milanese delicious but bring us more lemon wedges!

I confess I have not sampled one of my all-time favorite dishes, their Saltimbocca. I would eat it daily in San Francisco’s North Beach, and maybe I don’t want to sully that most wonderful of culinary memories!

So all bases are covered at La Dolce Vita, where you can order your favorite Italian specialty and watch the endless parade of touristi on Basilio Badillo. There’s a bewildering amount of yearly restaurant changes on this street, but I guarantee we can count on this one being a Puerto Vallarta staple!

Vanishing World Vanishing Home John Warren

john3984@me.com

John Warren is in charge of publicity for the International Friendship Club in Puerto Vallarta (IFC). During the summer, he writes about traveling while also raising environmental awareness.

Lend A Hand

W

hat emerged as a species 110 million years ago, is a green, heartshaped reptile that lays eggs on land, breathes air, travels thousands of miles in the ocean, starts life as a hatchling on the beaches of Puerto Vallarta and comes back home to lay her eggs? It’s the sea turtle known as the olive ridley.

The olive ridleys are amazing creatures. The females lay about 100 eggs in a hole that they scoop in the sand and then cover up and leave. They do this twice a season.

Between 52 and 58 days, the eggs hatch, the babies struggle out of the nest and stumble down the beach to the ocean. If they are not eaten by crabs, gulls, terns, or raccoons on this short journey, they get to the water and swim out to sea.

Males remain in the ocean for the rest of their lives, the females do come back to land again. Between July and November, the sexually mature females follow the Earth’s magnetic field, wave patterns, currents, or just a good memory, and return from their prolonged marine wanderings to the beaches where they were born to lay their eggs. These olive ridley ladies take advantage of a biological survival technique known as mass nesting, or “arribada,” when hundreds or thousands of them trundle up the beaches at the same time to dig their nests, lay their clutches of eggs and return to the ocean.

Seven or eight weeks later, hundreds of thousands of baby turtles all hatch and make the wild dash to the sea at the same time. Because there are just so many of them on the beach and in the shallows, they overwhelm their potential predators who have no choice but to let some of them escape. But questions abound.

09

Local Voices

October 10-16, 2019

How do the females all synchronize their arrival at the same beach at the same time? Why do they return to the beach of their birth? How do they find their home beach after traveling for such long distances and for such a long time? Why do only two of seven species of sea turtles do this?

The good news about the olive ridley turtles is that the steepness of their decline towards extinction has, in the last twenty years, leveled off. The other good news is that we are fortunate in Puerto Vallarta to have these females come ashore, here and in Nayarit, to lay their eggs at this time of year.

We also have several conservation organizations that work to preserve the turtles and their beaches.

When the eggs hatch, you and I can go to the beach with a member of one of the conservation groups and help launch the baby turtles on their way to the relative safety of the ocean. These “sunset turtle release parties” are also held at some of the beachside resorts and hotels. We can each take a small

action to help preserve one of the wonders of nature.

While we are lucky enough to have them nest here and to know that thousands and thousands of turtle youngsters waddle their way to the waters of the Bay of Banderas, down south in the state of Oaxaca in the municipalities of Santa María Tonameca and Tehuantepec, millions of turtle eggs are laid every year. Unfortunately, tropical storm Narda, which caused so much damage in this region, was terrible news for the turtles there.

The biologist Ángel Guillermo González Padilla, the coordinator of turtle camps of the Mexican Turtle Centre, announced last week that eight million eggs had been destroyed by the downpours, winds, and high tides that hit the coast of Oaxaca a couple of weeks ago.

But, like many species of wild things, the olive ridley turtles are classified as “Vulnerable.” That means they “are facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.”

After 110 million years!! There are several reasons for this, and we are responsible for all of them. The warming climate disrupts the breeding patterns of sea turtles and is destroying the coral reefs where they live; fishing nets abandoned by commercial fisherman cause thousands of turtle deaths every year; people still eat turtles and their eggs and, lastly, harmful building regulations along the coastline allows for the development of commercial and residential development.

If you would like to lend a hand to help the turtles, you can participate in a “sunset turtle release party,” and you can donate to conservation groups.

Medical Matters

Pam Thompson

pamela@healthcareresourcespv.com

Pamela Thompson operates HealthCare Resources Puerto Vallarta, a multi-faceted, independent, resource network that addresses all things related to your health and well-being. They offer assistance to help find a physician, hospital, and diagnostic service for any healthcare needs.

Healthcare Resources

O

ur Pink Cocktail to kick of Breast Cancer Awareness week was a stellar success!

The lobby of Hospital San Javier Marina was transformed into a lovely lounge, and the flowers alone were worth the visit! Canapés, wine, pink lemonade along with some super raffle prizes brought approximately 200 people together to make folks aware of breast cancer, to encourage self-breast exams, to honor breast cancer survivors and to remember with love the ones we have lost. Thank you to every single person who attended and participated in making this such a great success.

Now we move forward with other events! Pink Cocktail Northern Bay will be on October 18, 2019, at Lujo Lifestyles in Bucerias! 6 pm to 8 pm.

We invite you to stop by, enjoy some nibbles, a pink cocktail, participate in the raffle, and check out the amazing items at Lujo Lifestyles in Bucerias. Let’s all work on Breast Cancer Awareness and Lujo Pink Cocktail is a perfect place to do so.

Last year’s event was phenomenal!

This is a no-charge event. If you would like to donate some snacks or raffle prizes, please contact Tracy at t.bonin@live.com #500 Lazaro Cardenas, Bucerias.

Clinic Sanmare will present a very interactive event on October 25, 2019, from 6:30 pm to approximately 9:30 pm (across the street from Hospital San Javier Marina, next door to Soriana).

Games, snacks, information on proper fitting bras to pin the bra on the lady! For details on both events, follow my Facebook page! It is a very pink and proud month!

On October 22, 2019, Dr. Joel Galindo, orthopedic, will speak on a very common malady, Carpal

Tunnel Syndrome. There certainly seems to be more of this with all of the texting and typing going on nowadays. 9:00 am at Clinic Sanmare, RSVP, please. No charge.

On October 29, 2019, at 9 am yours truly will try to cover everything one needs to know about healthcare in the area. A mishmash of everything! RSVP, please!

And now I must use the rest of my space to thank so many people who have given support, notes of encouragement, to myself and my neighbors as we caught a horrible side effect from Hurricane Narda.

At 6 am while sitting at my home computer, enjoying my morning cup of coffee, I looked down and saw my feet were in a brown liquid.

What the hell? Within two hours, my entire house from front to back was up to my knees in water, mud, and gunk as the super heavy rains and clogged drains in my neighborhood had caused this overflow to enter wherever it could. Within a couple of hours, Proteccion Civil was here, and then throughout the day it was non-stop assistance from the bomberos, Proteccion Civil, the President of Puerto Vallarta, Sr. Davalos, friends, neighbors and strangers. I had wanted to downsize but certainly not like this!

All in all, about half of my ‘stuff’ was lost (and stuff is just that, STUFF) and can be replaced.

There are way too many people to list here to thank. Just know that we live in an absolutely amazing community of people with huge hearts and strong backs who put aside what they are doing and are always ready to lend a helping hand. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you one and all, and once again, I am so very proud to call Puerto Vallarta my home.

Here is to a very DRY week!

10

Local Voices

October 10-16, 2019

Welcome Home

Sheryl Novak

sa.novak@solutionsmexico.com

Sheryl Novak is an expat Canadian who has owned a home in Mexico for over ten years. She is the owner of SOLutions Mexico and The Furniture Store by SOLutions Mexico. She is an expert on sourcing all styles of furniture for all sizes of budgets, in Mexico.

Sofa bed or Murphy bed?

A

sofa bed and a Murphy (wall) bed are two great options that will help you get more value and space out of your home in Riviera Nayarit.

Rather than paying condo fees every month for space that you infrequently use, why not get better value from that space? With these space-saving solutions, a spare bedroom can quickly transform into a media or TV room, home office, or reading room. When company comes, you can easily convert the room back to a spare bedroom. To help you decide which is the right solution for you, check out how they compare in some key areas.

Safety: When they are installed

and used correctly, both the Murphy bed and the sofa bed are generally safe. Do not worry about either folding up on you when you are in it.

When you purchase a mechanism that has hydraulics, the Murphy bed is not meant to fall quickly from the upright position. Remember that most accidents happen when the items are improperly used or are subpar in quality. It is essential to be wary of their pinch points.

Pinch points are the lockable hinges that are required to make furniture convertible. With both solutions, it is crucial to be cautious to ensure your fingers do not get trapped. With a murphy bed, you will most likely need to attach it to a load-bearing wall if you opt for a larger size.

Comfort: Comfort is all about

Fiesta Mexicana

the mattress. When it comes to comfort, either is a good option since both now come with good mattresses. In the old days, sofa beds were constructed with very thin mattresses because they had to fold up. As a result, you could feel the metal rod in the middle of your back when you slept on it.

Today, you can get memory foam mattresses that are thick, and they fold easily. Good sofa beds are made with webbing so that they do not have the rod in the middle.

Almost any mattress will work for a Murphy bed. It just needs to be no thicker than the depth of the wall cabinet.

Ease of use: This depends on the quality of the mechanism.

Cheap sofa and wall beds use cheap mechanisms that will quickly rust in our humid, oceanside environment. Rusty mechanisms make it very difficult to open and close the bed. Quality mechanisms ensure it will always be easy to convert the sofa or murphy bed.

With the right sofa and Murphy

bed mechanism, the bed will glide smoothly and efficiently. Both are easy to use if you invest in proper quality mechanics.

Amount of use: If this is your primary bed or if it is going to be used frequently and needs to accommodate two adults, the Murphy bed is your better bet. A queen sofa bed is approximately 84 inches wide by 90 inches long when opened. Anything smaller (Full or individual size) will be less comfortable because it does not

have the width for more than one person.

Convenience: A downside of most sofa beds is that you have them up every night. There are a few available where you can leave the sheets on, and they have a cubby built in so you can store pillows and blankets. With a Murphy bed, you can pull it down and hop in. When it comes to convenience, the Murphy bed is the winner.

Best use of space: As long as you have a lot of space, both options will work. If space is limited, such as in a small room, the better option may be the Murphy bed.

Most people do not realize that Murphy beds can be built to fold out either vertically or horizontally.

Depending on the dimensions of your room, the better bet may be a horizontal Murphy bed since it will take up less space when open.

For where to buy well-made Murphy beds or sofa beds, you can reach me at sa.novak@solutionsmexico.com

Adorable Dog in the Spotlight: Sergio

W

ho doesn’t love a Labrador puppy?! Sergio is a four-month-old Labrador-mix boy, and as cute as they come! This sweet Little guy´s mom was rescued right after giving birth to nine beautiful puppies.

Sergio is vaccinated, neutered and ready to find a home!

Sergio is a peacemaker and avoids conflict; he is a sweet pupwho loves all people - an ideal family dog. His mom, Suzy, is a beautiful sweet-natured Labrador-mix weighing 50 pounds, and we think her puppies will be about the same size when fully grown.

If you think little Sergio is just what you have been looking for,

contact us at spcapv@gmail.com for an application to adopt him.

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MAJAHUITAS www.christchurchbythesea.org MAJAHUITAS RESORT MAJAHUITAS mypvchurch@gmail.com MAJAHUITAS RESORT

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PARK 18. THREE MARSOL MARKET 17.

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MARKET 20. MUNICIPAL EMILIANO ZAPATA 19.

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29. MOVIE RED CROSS 28. + PICNIC 30. RED LOS CROSS ARCOS NATIONAL PARK 29.

30. LOS ARCOS NATIONAL PARK

14

Local Voices

October 10-16, 2019

From Here

Marcia Blondin

marciavallarta@gmail.com

Aside from contributing to the Tribune for several years, Marcia is a skilled artisan, specialized in repurposing jewelry and selling her creations at the Marsol Friday Market by the Pier.

I

had a super-informative, long chat with Brett LaMar last week at the Vallarta Cigar Factory; he wisely chose coffee, I had a 2,000 calorie mango smoothie. Brett is an insurance broker specializing (only) in expat health-care needs. He is hosting a get-together/health-care lecture at Vallarta Co-Work tomorrow that I plan on attending. I wanted to get some info for my trip next spring to Canada/Sweden/Russia, but I need to have my dates written in stone first. So, a full report next week on “We Expats Insurance Solutions.”

If you haven’t been up to Art VallARTa lately, you should go, especially this month. The art school has classes on everything imaginable, but particularly during October, the emphasis is on the weirdness and wonder-inducing Day of the Dead with a little Halloween thrown in for imported color. There are classes to make special pan de muertos (bread of the dead… one of my personal faves…); learn how to make sugar skulls and skeletons. If being in the kitchen doesn’t suit you – learn how to make puppets, do stand-up comedy, take part in the International premiere of Mexican-born off/Broadway playwright’s work, right here in Art VallARTa’s new theatre. And there are pottery making classes, silk painting classes and so much more. And, because some of their instructors are so highly trained, they needed to have particular art supplies handy and lots of them

so, Art VallARTa now has one of the best-stocked art supply stores outside of Guadalajara. And they deliver. Their big event every October is the masquerade party/street dance with prizes for best costumes, and the little mariachis will be there, too. That takes place on Friday, October 25th, from 6 to 9 pm.

Dennis Crow is showing “The Producers” this Thursday at 7 pm at Incanto; this is Mel Brooks at his funniest. Next week is “Beauty and the Beast.” Remember, these are filmed live performances often quite different from the movie.

BabelBar is kicking off the season with fiery Latin music.

Starting at noon this Saturday, October 12th, some of the finest musicians in the Bay of Banderas are coming together for gypsy jazz, rumba, flamenco guitar, some sultry singing all set in one of the most comfortable, tranquil settings of any bar in Vallarta. Next to the river, on the Isla Cuale, where you can hear birds singing and the river moving between sets. Everybody will be there. You, too?

Artist’s Co-op Update: Waiting, waiting, and then waiting a bit more for one last detail to be smoothed out, and then we sign a lease…

Only three more Summer days left at Marsol Friday Market by the Pier before we switch into high gear for the winter. And our first BAZAAR of the season is Tuesday, October 29th, from 10 to 2.

Come by for hugs, then pass them on, From Here.

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16

Local Voices

October 10-16, 2019

Sustainably Yours

Life in the Slow Lane

Kelly Wilson

Emily Majewski

Upon retiring in Ontario, Kelly and her husband finally arrived in Puerto Vallarta—via a one-way ticket during the summer of 2017—where they now call Bucerias home. As avid adventurers, they enjoy exploring the entire Banderas Bay area. Kelly owns an online career coaching business and spends time volunteering for various local organizations.

Emily Majewski is Co-Founder of PHYTOSTONE, a small firm based in Nayarit dedicated to creating advanced natural materials for home and garden.

Gearing up for Winter

Designing the Culture of Tomorrow

emilyannmajewski@gmail.com

mybucerias404@gmail.com

I

am sometimes mildly disoriented to find that time has kept moving forward. I hear people in the north telling me about cooler weather, storing outdoor furniture, and their planned menu for Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, right. It must be autumn.

The changes in climate around Banderas Bay are more subtle than the four distinct seasons I’m used to. Therefore, I rely on my spideysense to alert me to the slightest of developments. Looking around lately, I’ve determined that special time of year must be nearing. After a long, humid summer, the bay is quietly stirring, yawning and stretching, fully waking up. From northern towns, through Vallarta and along the south shore, main thoroughfares and side streets, folks are preparing for another busy season. In Bucerias, we see some shops and restaurants temporarily closed as they renovate, update, and generally freshen up, allowing employees to take a few days of vacation time. Groundskeepers are clearing, cutting, and shaping the greenery that exploded from sunshine and rain over the past months.

The faded “no parking” curbs are suddenly radiant yellow with a new coat of paint, and the trunks of towering palms lining the roads

are gleaming white. Contractors are working hard to finish up projects in time for renters; big trucks rumbling down narrow streets to deliver materials to the worksite; workmen declaring the plan to each other as they coordinate a heavy lift. Entertainment venues are advertising their upcoming events (some selling out!), and in the coming weeks, banners will be hung, describing community events. There’s a feeling of preoccupation and engagement in readying for the influx of visitors; a barely contained excitement in knowing the high season is approaching. I’m sure those of you who spend the winter here are itching to come back as well. In the background, I imagine volunteers are being coordinated, recreational groups are pre-planning, and social committees are reaching out to past members. Soon there will be mini-reunions happening, with hugs and handshakes and lots to catch up on. Those initial greetings will grow into devising particular plans, sometimes enlarging the group as friends run into other friends known from seasons before. And with winter ahead, the Vallarta Tribune will get fatter. Same for me. It’s OK to start counting the number of “sleeps” until you arrive.

We know you’re looking forward to it because we are too.

Safe travels, everyone.

I

am a firm believer that many of the waste streams, impoverishments, and toxic effects of human culture are design flaws. This, to me, is a message of hope, because design flaws can be un-designed and re-designed. We are not talking about irreversible realities like gravity or doomed human nature.

Human civilization does not need to auto-destruct unless it has been designed to auto-destruct. In fact, every civilization that came before us that went extinct is a precious lesson in how not to repeat those mistakes.

Of course, this is not to overly simplify the challenge ahead of us. Each of us is designing human culture every day with the unfolding of our choices and life-narratives.

What we eat, how we live, what we find unacceptable. There are a lot of moving parts. We are mysterious composites of beings making choices within predetermined structural realities – if that’s not a paradox, I don’t know what is.

Examples of ‘structural externalities’ include food, waste, buildings, and various systems (such as industrial, political, and energy systems). Structural externalities also include cultural assumptions, values, taboos, and norms. And while marinated in the environment and heredity we find ourselves in, we make pivotal choices along the way. These choices, added together, manifest into design. The design of our material human world and the design of the interior principals we live by.

Of course, humans have been debating free will versus predestination since they could

debate. Are all our choices determined by what came before us, or are we free to make a difference? But for me, the co-existence of both realities is evident in our very genes. The study of epigenetics shows that while our genes represent a blueprint of pre-dispositions, lifestyle choices and individual experiences trigger which genes are activated or deactivated. In other words, genes, one of the most basic mechanisms of evolution, indicate that it is possible to operate within pre-determined structural realities but to, in turn, bend the activation of those parameters, and even forge new pathways. Choices, like lifestyle choices, alter genetic expression. Considering this is the entire mechanism by which evolution, well, evolves, I think we can safely assume it is operational in our lives, design, and culture.

It’s funny how the question of free will versus predeterminism is reflected in our dualistic political system. On the conservative side, the emphasis is on personal autonomy and choice. If someone is in jail, it is quite simply because their choices got them there, and they deserve it. There is an under-acknowledgment that external systems, biases, and structures have also contributed to that prisoner’s confinement.

These external forces could range from nutritional deficiencies, and behavior-altering medications to the fact that a penalty for the same crime might vary from county to county, and the prisoner was the wrong color in the wrong county. Or that society has let a person down to such an extent that he or she was driven to desperation.

On the other side of the political spectrum, liberalism tends to over-emphasize structural pre-determination and ignore individual

freewill. This stance denies the many cases of individuals overcoming tremendous odds, cultural biases, and personal hardship, achieving greatness nevertheless. Liberalism can become so accustomed to finger-pointing at ‘sad or bad’ externalities that the power of individual choice is ignored.

I mention politics because our political reality exerts such a strong influence on how culture evolves. This past century we have seen free-market capitalism on the right, with its emphasis on individual rights over collective rights…and communism on the left, with its favoring of collective rights over the individual. Both have been flip sides of the same coin: forms of profiteering that assume natural resource depletion as a sacred right.

The political hybrid required by the 21st century is one that prioritizes individual rights, collective rights, and the rights of nature to regenerate. Because of the latter, this is not merely some moderate ‘middle way’ between capitalism and communism.

The inclusion of nature means designing a new political circuitry altogether. And while some interpret the ‘rights of nature’ as some novel form of government intrusion, it is in the interests of all of us, as individuals and a collective, to prevent the paving of paradise.

When it comes to crafting a sustainable culture, we need to acknowledge that social, political, and industrial constructs can be re-designed according to biological principals, and designed for success. Nature is teaching us every day what works and doesn’t work. For example, that competition must be balanced with mutualism. That there is no such thing as waste. That external, collective forces shape individuals but that individuals also catalyze mass movements. That creative processes need to embrace failure, iteration, and experimentation.

That diversity brings us security.

That failure to adapt is fatal.

As the old saying goes, don’t sh*t where you sleep. These common-sense evolutionary principals are strikingly missing from the operations and ethics of our culture. No wonder it seems determined to auto-destruct. We need to open our eyes, soak in the lessons from billions of years, and re-design our society.

We can do it. It’s in our very genes.

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Local Voices

October 10-16, 2019

The Healing Power of Plants Ricardo Mazcal

mazcalteotl@gmail.com

Ricardo is a fourth-generation herbalist from Nayarit and is available year-round at Marsol Friday Market by the Pier.

Sleep Better - Naturally

T

oday lifestyles are full of stressors: poor diet; artificial lighting; television, computer, and cell phone screens that, in combination, guarantee sleeplessness, insomnia, and other sleep disorders.

All these stressors collapse a good night’s sleep. Stress from any acute source activates the brain and speeds up thoughts, so when our minds are racing, it is hard to fall asleep. The first task is to help your brain to relax, preferably naturally.

We don’t always go to bed and get up at the same time, but those are essential factors in conditioning our circadian rhythm for healthy

sleep patterns. A sufficient amount of sleep is extremely important for your health, as it helps your body and brain function properly. A good night’s sleep in a dark room can provide many benefits, including repairing your learning, memory, and decision-making abilities.

Getting the necessary amount of sleep has been linked to a lower risk of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.

A good night’s sleep starts with good sleep practices and habits: avoid alcohol, tobacco, and drinks containing caffeine late in the evening. Avoid napping during the day and, if possible, work out problems arising from work or family issues before going to bed.

If that doesn’t work, try natural

sleep-promoting supplements.

Following is a list of available supplements that come in various packaging formats and potency.

For example, herbal teas are mild and tinctures, stronger.

Natural herbal teas come in bags and loose leaf including flowers and bark; in capsules; compressed herbal pills, and liquid tinctures. General use is to take 30 minutes before bedtime.

Melatonin is a hormone your body produces, signaling your brain that it’s time to sleep.

Melatonin levels naturally rise in the evening and fall in the morning; having a bad or compromised microbiome (gut) can drastically reduce melatonin production.

Melatonin supplements reduce the time people need to fall asleep and increase the total amount of sleep time; pills should be taken sublingually.

Valerian (Valerian officianalis): is an herb root commonly used as a natural treatment for anxiety, insomnia, depression, menopausal discomfort, and as a

sleep-promoting herbal sedative.

Valerian has none of the adverse side effects of valium or other synthetic sedatives and works well in combination with other herbs like California poppy and passionflower.

Passionflower and Tila are herbs used for insomnia caused by mental worry, overwork or nervous exhaustion, and are used for sleep problems with no side effects. Drink water with a teaspoon, tablespoon, or more tincture as needed.

Magnesium is a mineral involved in hundreds of processes in the human body and is vital for brain function and heart health.

Magnesium helps quiet the mind and body, making it easier to fall asleep; it also increases levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a brain messenger with soothing effects.

Glycine-Creatine is an amino acid that plays an essential role in the nervous system and helps improve sleep by lowering body temperature at bedtime. Consume foods rich in glycine - bone broth, meat, eggs, poultry, fish, beans,

spinach, kale, cabbage, and fruits like bananas.

Ginkgo biloba: Taking tincture of this natural herb one hour before bed reduces stress, enhances relaxation, and promotes sleep.

Chamomile (Anthemis nobilis): a time-honored sedative herb that can be used safely by children and adults.

California poppy (Eschscholtzia californica): a sedative and sleep-promoting herb with analgesic properties, helping people to relax and ease anxiety.

Magnolia Bark (Magnolia officinalis): helps relax the mind and body by lowering cortisol levels; can help prevent obesity and type II diabetes. Take this herb ONLY just before going to bed, magnolia bark promotes rapid drowsiness; don’t operate vehicles or heavy machinery.

St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum): is a yellow flower herb with a long history of use dating back to ancient Greece. Scientific studies show that it helps chronic insomnia and depression. This herb can sensitize the skin, so avoid direct exposure to bright sunlight.

There is a steep price to pay for not sleeping at least seven hours a day: it can cause your metabolism to slow down, increase food cravings, and nighttime fat-burning stops. Getting enough sleep is as essential as diet and exercise.

“La Noche de Alebrijes - Til Death Does Us Art” Live Performance to Highlight ART VallARTa 2019 Day of the Dead Festivities

D

October 25th street party, music, gallery exhibition, and commemorative altars to kick off annual Day of the Dead activities at ART VallARTa

early departed spirits in Puerto Vallarta’s Zona Romantica will return to hover over this year’s ART VallARTa Day of the Dead celebration, starting Friday, October 25th, from 6–9 p.m. with a street party and live music on stage, plus an all-new gallery exhibition inside the ART VallARTa gallery and studios.

Seating will be provided and refreshments available. Visitors are expected from around the Banderas Bay region and be-yond.

On street display will be giant alebrijes — brightly colored Mexican folk art sculptures of fantastical creatures. Insi-de the ART VallARTA gallery and studios,

available for sale, will be original art, including in-theme paintings and sculptures by noted local, regional, and international artists.

Also inside will be several commemorative altars, works of art themselves, to honor those who’ve passed on. Cos-tumes are encouraged. Refreshments will be served.

Mexico Premier:“La Noche de los Alebrijes” a bilingual play

by Georgina Escobar in collaboration with Mundo Milagro In addition to music, the street stage activities will include a preview of “La Noche de los Alebrijes - Til Death Does Us Art,”

a bilingual play written and directed

by Georgina Escobar, an acclaimed and award-winning playwright from New York City who was born in Mexico and raised in Chihuahua and Zacatecas.

Her plays explore themes of fantasy, mythology, and feminism, and her notable works include Ash Tree, The Ruin, and Sweep. She received the Kennedy Center’s Theatre for Young Audiences Playwriting Award in 2010. “The per-formance of my work in the ART VallARTa theater marks my return to my Mexican homeland and is intended to honor the magic of Mexico and its growing contributions to the world of art

www.artvallarta.com Calle Pilitas 213 Zona Romantica, Puerto Vallarta

and surrealism,” Escobar says.

ART VallARTa Director Nathalie Performances, all bilingual, are Herling invites everyone in the scheduled at the following days Banderas Bay region and beyond and times in the ART VallARTa to attend. “Our an-nual Day of theater, Calle Pilitas 213. The play the Dead festivities celebrate a is a performance in collaboration Mexican cultural tradition that has with Mundo Milagro, a Latino roots in Aztec times and earlier,” theater group based in Portland, she says. “We want to keep that Ore-gon, USA. Tickets are available tradition alive, even as we celebrate online at www.artvallarta.com or at in both art and live performance the the door, from 290.00 pesos. Dates lives and memories of those who and times are: have passed on. We are especially • Thursday, October 31, 1:00 p.m. excited to have noted playwright • Friday, November 1, 1:00 p.m.

Georgina Escobar for her Mexico La Noche de Alebrijes - Til Death Does Us • Saturday, November 2, 1:00 p.m. debut of her latest work in the Art Live3, 7:00 Performance totheater.”

Highlight ART • Sunday, Art” November p.m.

VallARTa • Friday, November 8, 7:00 p.m.

For more information and VallARTa 2019 Day of the Dead Festivities • Saturday, November 9, 7:00 p.m. tickets to the play, visit www. th • Sunday October November25 10, street 7:00 p.m. party,artvallarta.com. music, gallery exhibition,

and commemorative altars to kick off annual Day of the Dead activities at ART VallARTa

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Local Voices

October 10-16, 2019

Insight

Martin Rosenberg, PhD

martysanmiguel@gmail.com

Marty journeyed from Anthropology Lecturer at the Museum of Natural History, N.Y.C., President of Illinois’ CPA Society, CEO Tomorrows Software, film producer, and author of three books and many articles. As Director of Posters International Gallery in Puerto Vallarta, he is surrounded daily by creativity and European history. www.rosenbergcollection.com

Left, Right, and Center

I

am ambidextrous — it hasn’t impacted my sexual preferences as I worried about when naively first hearing this word. In fact, as a child, having been left by my parents to play with toys and myself with either hand, this duality of dexterity has been a real plus.

Let me explain how, as well as its downsides.

Mixed handed people who favor writing as a “lefty” probably have inherited their father’s gene (LRRTM1) linked to left-handedness. This link was reported in 2007.

We are different because most animal brains are symmetrical, including the apes. Having

asymmetrical brain connectivity makes for some interesting myths and research studies.

Most of the myths have been debunked. Unfortunately for most of us who are now adults, we probably have already suffered at the hands of parents adopting these falsehoods as gospel. Some of the tales included a supposed predilection to be dyslexic, stutter, or even become schizophrenic (maybe that was the little voices I heard when playing with my toy soldiers under the covers as a kid). Also, asthma and allergies were reputed to be more common conditions among lefties. I had both — but maybe the stress of parents gone wild with worrying contributed to these childhood ailments. (All of which disappeared

when I left home to attend college — breathing was so much easier living independently, and I hadn’t even yet gotten into Buddhism and meditation.)

About ten percent of the world’s population is mixed handed. Until recently, there was little attention paid to this dexterity. Studying the brain is now a big new field of science. Brain mapping tells researchers what is firing up when certain stimuli are presented.

We broadly knew that the right hemisphere focused on context and emotion, the left side on syntax and order. But studies have gone beyond these fundamentals to test for behavioral traits.

There is a lexicon history to left-handed people. It is not flattering, but here’s a piece of it.

Ambidextrous had connotations of insincerity and double-dealing.

Also, such meanings as awkwardness, clumsy, dubious, and even maladroit show up as synonyms. Being skillful with both hands was far down the list of common characteristics. Now on to my favorite attributes that studies have traced to left and right-handed folks.

The research point I like the best reveals that mixed handedness works both brain hemispheres, and also shows that lefties process language using both sides of the

brain. The theory is that if one hemisphere gets overloaded, the other jumps in more quickly to pick up the slack. (I am therefore left to ponder why Ms. Pompidou, my high school French teacher, failed me in her classes — both sides of my brain were pumping away — I just never got any written homework in on time.)

There was this report in the Journal of Neuropsychology that the condition enhances the ability to process multiple stimuli faster — i.e. I should have gone for my jet fighter pilot’s license — it would have been a breeze. There’s more than enough other good news to make up for any childhood frustrations that we lefties haven’t yet worked through.

I rarely noticed, throughout my life, if someone wrote left-handed.

As I watched President Obama sign a new law, it suddenly hit me — he’s a lefty. Were there more like him... us? As it turns out, The Toronto Star reported that 66% of the Presidents in the last thirty years were also left-handed. Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Reagan, and Ford were lefties. Obama had company as John McCain also was in the club. Australian researchers found that lefties think more quickly when playing computer games and sports. Other characteristics found included being adaptable, having

an independent streak (my former spouses can confirm this), and being able to switch hands easily if needed. (President Obama has a pretty good jump shot on the basketball court) Ms. Demm failed me in penmanship through her control over my elementary school homeroom class. It seriously brought my C average way down and got me on the list of “underachievers” who had high I.Q’s and really low grades. My grades probably sucked because the teachers were too lazy to read my handwritten test answers and clearly favored the girls whose printing was impeccable.

I loved competitive sports as a teenager and my two-handed mal-aligned malady was especially advantageous for playing basketball and tennis — I could go to the hoop and lay the ball up with either hand.

I also drove tennis opponents crazy with my switching the racquet from right to left hand when chasing down sideline shots they thought should have been unreachable.

(None of the big-name tennis greats play this way, but there is a coterie of two-handed tennis pros, and they have officially come out and are proud.)

So what has become of all these exciting discoveries about mixed handed people? How have lives been changed? Have fortunes been made?

Well, if your significant other sends you to the doghouse — you can buy a great sleeping bag made especially for left-handed people.

Even toddlers can learn to eat more easily on their own with curved toddler spoons so their wrists don’t have to bend so far, and those with a propensity to be a lefty can get an even break in their development. For the musically inclined, there are now left-handed guitars to strum away on. There are hundreds of products available.

If I had such a high I.Q. and my brain hemispheres were so well developed, why didn’t I invent some of these new conveniences? Being equally fast with both hands might be cool as an athlete or magician, but it didn’t fatten up my retirement account a bit.

Music & Sounds of the Sea Christie Seeley

vallartasounds.com

From Oakland, California to Puerto Vallarta… lured by music of guitars and sounds of the sea.

Now the Music Begins

I

t’s finally October when everything begins to wake up in Puerto Vallarta. Hopefully, we have weathered all the storms of the season and survived.

On October 12, Arancha at Babel Bar on the River Cuale will celebrate Día de la Raza with a super program that will stimulate the artistic as well as partying regions of your brains!

The festivities will begin at noon and include new music from many of our favorites including the fiery flamenco-inspired and often original music by Tatewari, the easy jazzy and troubadour style of Oscar Terrazas and Raul Simental, Mexican classics and gypsy rumba by Zoe y Leon, flamenco and Argentine music by La Boquita and the exotic Mediterranean and Jazz Manouche of the innovative and multi-talented Moruno. If this is anything like last year, which it is bound to be, it will knock your socks off! Go Babel Bar! Off to a fresh new season!

Not to be left behind, La Cruz de Huanacaxtle will be celebrating with Alfredo and MariChuy Jimenez at the opening of the new incarnation of their Tree House Bar and

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Entertainment

October 10-16, 2019

Grill on October 19. They have been busy building in their new location right next door to the old one for several months now and are ready to Rock n Roll! Kicking off the festivities with Cheko Ruiz and his band, they will continue throughout the evening with popular local groups, including Tatewari. This will start off an exciting season of music in La Cruz for which Alfredo has been scouting great entertainment all summer long. MariChuy is sure to offer her incredible barbecued ribs to accompany your favorite beverages!

The big venues will pick up their wonderful entertainment in November. Watch for the exciting Gypsy Rumba/Latin Fusion band Media Luna’s return to Incanto with their

new inspirations and also for flamenco group Tatewari, fresh in from their Western Canada tour, with special guest songstress Perla Alarcón. These extremely popular and very unique bands will perform alternating Tuesday evenings at Incanto’s Cabaret Theater beginning November 5, bringing us the creative products of their summer activities. We are definitely in for a treat!

Fernando Huerta and his talented group Piel Canela will be returning to the Palm for a new season on October 22.

They will also be featured at the Palm’s charity event for the children of Refugio Infantil of Santa Esperanza on the evening of November 18, along with the Palm’s star-studded cast for the season.

So put on your festive outfits and foot-tapping shoes and get ready for some exciting days and evenings, it’s time to party!

Attention! Just announced: Please mark your calendars for a very special musical event the 2019 Bahia World Music Festival on December 7 and 8 to be held on the grounds of Oscar’s Tequila Distillery on Río Cuale Island, where the river meets the Banderas Bay. This will be a big one, and you are not going to want to miss it!

For more information, visit the festival website worldmusicfestival.mx and the Facebook page Bahia World Music Festival.

Thoughts from the Tile Park

Emily Murray

emilysbigadventure@gmail.com

Emily Murray writes about the stream of creativity at Puerto Vallarta’s Tile Park at Parque Lázaro Cárdenas in downtown Puerto Vallarta.

Climate Control

I

t’s been a long few weeks, "fightthe-good-fight" wise. In this corner we have our challenger, Ms. Greta Thunberg, speaking words of wisdom, lending an intelligent and urgent voice to a matter plaguing us all. And in this corner, we have literally every institution causing the plaguing of us all. Lobbyists, politicians, the Nestle corporation (and many others) and even your neighbor, who parrots the latest Fox News soundbytes at you while you mow the lawn.

“Our house is on fire!” Greta famously said, voice shaking with a heady mix of fear and rage.

The patent response from the opposition is that she’s a paid actor.

And? So what if she were? Does that change the fact that we’re pulling whole plastic bags out of freshly caught fish, or that there is a 600,000 square mile island of trash floating in the Pacific? Does it change the fact that bottled water manufacturers are really just plastic manufacturers? Or that, thanks to them, you (yes YOU) are consuming an amount of plastic to equal a credit card every single week?

But I digress. What was my point? Oh yes. Our house. It’s on fire.

As these last several weeks have unfolded, we’ve all had plenty of time to consider that change needs to come, but that we each can’t do it alone. There needs to be a collective shift in the way we live, and the responsibility we take for ourselves. The major corporations need a major overhaul too, but that’s a different thing. I’m talking about a cultural shift, a taking back of our personal power, a conscious choosing of what’s right for us and not just what’s convenient.

It’s taking a reusable water bottle and using it, not emboldening Nestle further.

It’s buying an appropriate vehicle, if you even need one. Not a beefy SUV to make you feel better about yourself.

It’s understanding that your eating habits do not just affect you, but the world around you too.

It’s making conscious choices.

We’ve been made unconscious by the corporations. We need to wise up.

The last few weeks have brought tropical storms to the Puerto Vallarta area, and it sure has packed a wallop this time around. Even the downtown core got hammered, which rarely happens, causing flooding and property damage to homes that have been enjoying a relatively mellow existence for a good long time now. And outlying communities, they’ve been devastated. Whole livelihoods, gone.

Wiped out. Businesses destroyed, right before high season. You like to hike to the Quimixto waterfall and have lunch there? Not anymore you don’t.

At least, not until we fix it all back up. And it’s going to have to be us, there won’t be any help from “the powers that be”. Just as we can’t count on any of the major corporations to ever do the right thing by the people or the planet, our neighbors can’t count on any assistance from any governing body. Frankly, sadly, this is nothing new.

But, we always get by with a little help from our friends. The outpouring of support from the community has been fantastic, and we’ll need to keep pushing for a while. If you’re inclined to help, please check Facebook. There are myriad groups pulling together donations, or you can reach out to us here at the Tile Park if you’re stuck for ideas.

The earth is not ours, we belong to the earth.

And at times like these more than ever, we belong to each other, too.

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Entertainment

Evening Under The Stars SPCA Fundraiser

W

e invite you to join us for our annual “Evening under the Stars” Gala on Saturday, November 30, 2019.

This year’s venue is the romantic Oscar’s Restaurant, surrounded by natural beauty at the tip of Rio Cuale Island.

Our guests will be treated with cocktails and passed appetizers, beginning at 6 pm; followed by a three-course dinner at 7 pm. The Open Bar will feature a number of tasty house-drinks, and there will also be a cash bar for those who would like to try the restaurant’s extensive Tequila selections or other specialty cocktails.

A traditional Jalisco Mariachi band will provide entertainment.

Our Silent Auction will offer guests the opportunity to bid on many beautiful items. The exclusive Live Auction, hosted by world-famous charity auctioneer, John Curley, will feature a few very unique things for those of you looking for

something especially memorable.

Please consider donating items for either our Silent or Live Auctions. We would genuinely appreciate your support! All of our rescue work is funded 100% through private donations and the hard work of many volunteers. If you would like to help by donating an item, please contact us at spcapv@gmail.com Our mission to rescue abandoned and abused animals in Puerto Vallarta has led to the rehabilitation and adoption of approximately 200 animals a year!

Your generosity helps us continue to provide these beautiful babies with a sanctuary, medical care, and love until a permanent home can be found for each of them!

At only 2,000 pesos or 120 USD per person, tickets to this event sell out very quickly! We have limited seating available, so get your tickets now. For tickets or more information, please contact us at spcapv@gmail.com

October 10-16, 2019

Live Music Calendar This list features bars and restaurants that may have live music and ongoing acts. We do not take responsibility for misinformation. Listings are published free of charge but are subject to space availability. Email editor@vallartatribune.com to update or add your listings.

VALLARTA Aloha Bar (Plaza Parabien #16) Thur: Dr. Groove 10 pm BabelBar (Aquiles Serdán 437, Isla del Cuale) BabelBar for Saturday, October 12 from noon Captain Don’s (Honduras 126) Fri: Tequila Rush 8 - 11 pm Sat: Da Crew 8 - 11 pm Chasers Sports Bar (Avenida Mexico 570A) Fri: Gecko Band 8 - 11 pm El Oasis de Holi (River mouth by La Isla Mall) Sat: Dr. Groove 6 pm Kelly’s Pour Favor Saloon and Cookhouse (Lazaro Cardenas 245) Mon: Hoochie Coochie Men 8 - 11 pm Wed: Tequila Rush 8 - 11 pm Thur: 3Tones 8 - 11 pm Fri: Dr. Groove 8 - 11 pm Sat: Soul Trip 8 - 11 pm Murphy’s Irish Pub (484 Morelos, Malecon) Fri: Adriana and the Freaks 10 pm Sat: Adriana and the Freaks 10 pm Que/Pasa (625 Aquiles Serdan) Tues: The Change at 7-10 pm Sun: Sylvie&The Zippers 7 - 10 pm

Roxy Rockhouse (Ignacio L Vallarta 275) Nightly music after 11 pm with the house band Starwings (Avenida Fluvial 223) Wed: Black Mamba 9 pm

NUEVO VALLARTA Eddies (Boulevard Nayarit 70) Weekly - Live music 6:30 - 9:30 pm

BUCERIAS Drunken Duck (Avenida Mexico, Centro | Bucerias) Wed: The Gecko Band 9 pm Sun: The Gecko Band 5pm

LA CRUZ DE HUANACAXTLE Ana Bananas (Tiburón #42 | La Cruz) Sun: Live Music 7 pm La Cruz Inn Tres Aires Thursdays 5pm OSO’s Oyster Bar ( La Cruz Marina) Sat: The Remedy 7 pm Britannia (Coral, La Cruz) Tues: Open mic with The Turn 7pm

SAYULITA & SAN PANCHO Don Pato (Marlin 12, Sayulita) Live music nightly

View these listings and more online at www.vallartatribune.com/eventos/live-music-calendar/

Purr Project’s Fall Garage Sale will be on Saturday, November 9!

We are beginning to schedule truck pick-ups of large items you’d like to donate. Please let me know (a) what you’re donating, (b) the approximate size/weight of your donations, (c) your address and phone contact. When the schedule is compiled, I will let you know when we’ll come by for your items. If you have small items (bags of clothing, small boxes of books, etc.) I can meet you at Los

Mercados and accept your items there.

FYI—already collected for the sale are motorcycle helmets, a dehumidifier, large-screen TVs, table and floor lamps, rolls of upholstery fabric (some Sunbrella), a microwave, coffee-maker, scuba gear, a professional juicer, artwork, books, towels and linens, and tons of kitchen and decorator stuff. It’s gonna be another GREAT sale!

Upcoming Events November 14-17 American Express Punta Mita Gourmet & Golf For the ninth consecutive year, the ultra luxury residential community of Punta Mita, will host the American Express Punta Mita Gourmet & Golf, one of the most sophisticated culinary and golf events in the country. The American Express Punta Mita Gourmet & Golf will feature international guests such as Craig “The walrus” Stadler and Lorena Ochoa, two golf legends. Nayarit treasure and Chef Betty Vázquez and Antonio de Livier, founder and creator of the annual Pacific Cooks, as well 20 other nationally and internationally recognized chefs will create unique meals through the event as well as host cooking classes and more.

October 10-16, 2019

Games

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Entertainment

October 10-16, 2019

Grand Opening of Abbraccio Italian Kitchen 19 October, 2019 - 19 October, 2019 Special Invitation to the Grand Opening of Abbraccio Saturday October 19 Benefiting Pasitos de Luz Benvenuti a Abbraccio!

Abbraccio is excited to bring

delicious homemade recipes, lovingly crafted by its founders, all the way from Corleone in Sicily to our beautiful corner of Mexico in Puerto Vallarta. They want to make their mark here in Vallarta and are

pleased to bring their passion for Italian cuisine straight from their kitchen to your plate.

We would like to invite you to join us at the inaugurazione of Abbraccio, where you will enjoy a

spectacular dinner, all the while supporting the vital work that Pasitos de Luz does with disabled children. Reserve your place at this grande apertura, so that you can enjoy a wonderful night of giving back to our local community.

When? Saturday October 19 @ 8.30pm Where? Abbraccio Cucina Italiana, Boulevard Francisco Medina Ascencio 2590, Puerto Vallarta (next to the Outback Steakhouse) • This is a special event behind closed doors. Socialize and enjoy yourselves with friends. Space is limited.

• Suggested donation of $500 MXN per guest. Please book in advance. We wouldn’t want you to miss out!

Anglican Church Puerto Vallarta

Iglesia Anglicana Puerto Vallarta

Worldwide Anglican Communion Anglican Church in North America

• Sample mouthwatering Italian delicacies that will transport you to Sicily. Your ticket also includes two complimentary drinks.

• We will be running a live auction conducted by our energetic MC, featuring highly sought-after items that you will want to take home.

• Some of our Pasitos children will visit your table to leave a small souvenir of the night.

• Get your friends and colleagues together for a night to remember and book a group table for 2, 4, 6 or 8 people.

How can I reserve my table?

For table bookings, please call or send a WhatsApp message to 322 137 1890 or email us at info@ pasitosdeluz.org

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October 10-16, 2019

Breakfast now served at Bambinos Trattoria!

B

eginning this 21st of October, Bambinos Trattoria inaugurates a new venture, opening for Breakfast. Yes, that is right! Bambino’s talented chef Chimi, will expand his passion for cuisine with a tasty selection of traditional and international breakfast options, great coffee and excellent mimosas. Mark your calendar for this opening event. Please be sure to claim your Bambino-Bux cupon to use toward upcoming Los Bambinos weekly theme shows. ∆ Breakfast seating begins at 9:00am, Brunch seating at 11:00am ∆ ∆ Two Bambinos Acoustic Performances ∆ Free Welcome Drink ∆ Free Admission ∆ Bambinos Trattoria is gaining momentum as a favorite spot to dine, drink and listen to great music in Old Town Vallarta.

The Trattoria experience has customers coming back for more with dinner menu selections such as Salmon in Lemon Cream sauce and melt-in-your-mouth

Carpaccio.

Los Bambinos Shows commence October 23rd Don’t miss your chance to experience the Homestyle cooking of the Bambinos Trattoria, while listening to one of Los Bambinos weekly shows.

Shows begin Wednesday, October 23rd with Beatlemania.

Friday evening, October 25th come on down for a full evening of Latin music in their famous Fiesta Latina Show! On Monday night, October 28th Los Bambinos perform “Hotel California” featuring a special evening with songs by The Eagles. Each of their shows highlight the tasteful mix of traditional and International

OPENING EVENT OCTOBER 21ST, 2019

AGUACATE #314 IN OLD TOWN P.V.

RESERVE NOW 222.4357 23 OCT 8PM

BEATLEMANIA

tunes that Vallarta loves about this talented group.

Los Bambinos are pleased to offer their concerts at a new restaurant venue: Bambinos Trattoria (www.bambinostrattoria. com). Come hungry for an authentic Italian meal, and leave pleased as you are served by a talented kitchen team and dedicated wait-staff. Stay tuned to

Facebook @losbambinostrattoria and find un-biased reviews on Trip Advisor. Bambinos Trattoria is located at Aguacate #314, at the corner of Carranza street in Old Town Puerto Vallarta, just before Mundo de Azulejos.

For the show Reserve your tickets now: Online (www.losbambinosmusic.com) or 222-4357.

English spoken. Seating is limited.